8 boot-campers and 2 ruckers ignored the weather predictions and posted for a mostly rain free morning. No FNGs so we started with 5 burpees. Because why not?
Mosey to beside building: 5 burpees, 10 squats.
Mosey to circle behind apartments: 5 burpees, 10 squats, 15 mtn climbers.
Mosey to top of hill: 5 burpees, 10 squats, 15 mtn climbers, 20 LBCs.
Mosey to daycare parking lot: 5 burpees, 10 squats, 15 mtn climbers, 20 LBCs, 25 SSH.
Mosey over to old Sonic. I thought we could use this space since it was covered but unfortunately it was like a cave. I needed a head-lamp to read the weinke so since we had no light and it wasn’t raining we returned to daycare lot.

Circle up for the 300. 10 exercises, 30 reps each. Sounds easy…
Merkins, Seal Jacks, Jump Lunges, Flutters, Scorpion CDDs
Lap around Sonic to break it up
Jump Squats, Freddie Mercs, Plank Jacks, Shoulder Touches, Toe Touches

Suicides, 6 reps.
Jack ladder: Plank Jacks on one end, Bomb Jacks in the middle, and Seal Jacks on the other end. 20:5:5, 15:5:10, 10:5:15, & 5:5:20.

Mosey back toward home.
Stop at bottom of hill: 20 LBCs, 15 mtn climbers, 10 squats, 5 burpees.
Stop near apartment garages: 15 mtn climbers, 10 squats, 5 burpees.
Times up, back to COT, and no one seemed to complain about missing out on the remaining burpees.

Announcements: Tons of things going on. Columbia mission trip support. Hog & Coyote. School fundraiser. A few others so read the newsletter.

Prayer requests: Manchester bombing victims, Fish Sticks increase in work travel.

Even though the rain held off, it was like 210% humidity this morning. Everyone looked like they had been rained on. Great work by everyone. Thanks to Decibel for opportunity!

-Mainframe

The evening before the workout I sent out a message on twitter asking who was the Q at Golden Corral for the Ruck WO.  I quickly got a response back saying it was wide open just for me.  Obviously I stepped up and took the Q.  For about the next 20 minutes I thought about trying to put together a winkie, but then I finally decided to wing it since I have participated in several WOs at GC and figured I could put something together.  So the moral to my story is don’t post something on Twitter or any other social media where other Pax are that you aren’t willing to lead.

Warmup:
20 SSH IC
10 Windmill IC
10 Hill Billy Walker IC
10 merkins IC – with ruck on

I have participated in quite a few ruck workouts at GC and every time we walk around to the back side of HT/ 9 Round I always think we are going to do something to incorporate the large tractor tire sitting on the sidewalk.  Every time we always continued right past it without stopping except for this time.

The Thang:
Split up in pairs and do the following:
1 – partner flip the tire from 9 Round to the end of building and back
2 – squats and run to cones and back – rotate with partner between squats and run until team 1 has finished
3 – LBCs and run – same rotation as #2

Once #1 finished all teams rotated to their next station after 5 Man Makers
Rinse and Repeat until completing all 3 stations

Mosey over behind the Tire Station for a modified version of Dora
100 merkins – with ruck
50 step ups on wall – with ruck
**Initially I called out 100 step ups but realized it would take forever to complete so being Q I modified

5 Man Makers
Gave pax a quick breather while I shared my thoughts on Maturity
Back to the wall for 25 more step ups as a group
DORA 100 LBCs
15 more step ups as a group
5 Man Makers
10 more step ups as a group

After completing 100 step ups we moseyed over to the side of the HT for a 6-10 count wall sit
15 Dips IC

5 Man Makers

After all of this terrible stuff I still didn’t feel like a ruck workout is complete until you have to bear crawl.

Finally it was completed with a round of Homer and Marge until COT.

Honestly I found it to be very fun and challenging to Q on the fly.  However I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who has never been to a site to try and do this because it could be an epic failure.  With that said I still plan to do some prep work for my Q’s just so I have something to leverage if needed.

Thanks for allowing me to lead and great work by all Pax!

27 Pax showed out for some work at Golden Corral, and to enjoy perfect F3 weather (low 60’s, clear, and not too humid). After the disclaimer was issued, half a dozen or so ruckers split off with Bonsai at the helm. The remaining pax moseyed with YHC for some warm-up action behind the Harris Teeter. #Mumblechatter was strong, and the epicenter of it seemed to follow Pusher.

Warm-up

• SSH x25 (IC)
• Windmills x15 (IC)
• Forward lunges
• Reverse lunges
• Imperial Walkers x15 (IC)
• Peter Parkers x20 (IC)
• Parker Peters x20 (IC)
• Mountclimbers x15 (IC)

As we moseyed from behind Harris Teeter, we crossed paths with an FNG (later named “Elvis”) that was EH’ed by Boeheim. Elvis arrived late due AO location confusion. T-Claps for him searching us out and catching up to the pax. We landed at the Rite-Aid building for the main event: 4-Corner BLIMPS Accumulators

The Thang
For each “round” described below, all pax were to run to each corner of the Rite-Aid building and do BLIMPS exercises. For those unfamiliar with the shape of a square building, that means the exercises were repeated 4 times each round (once at each corner). After each round, leading pax planked until the 6 arrived. So we all started each round together.

Round 1- 1 burpee at each corner (running between corners)
Round 2 – 1 burpee, 2 step lunges at each corner
Round 3 – 1 burpee, 2 lunges, 3 Imperial walkers
Round 4 – 1 burpee, 2 lunges, 3 Imperial walkers, 4 merkins
Round 5 – 1 burpee, 2 lunges, 3 Imperial walkers, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks
Round 6 – 1 burpee, 2 lunges, 3 Imperial walkers, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 squats
Round 7 – 2 lunges, 3 Imperial walkers, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 squats
Round 8 – 3 Imperial walkers, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 squats
Round 9 – 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 squats
Round 10 – 5 plank jacks, 6 squats
Round 11 – 6 squats

We managed to get all 11 rounds in before heading to COT. For those curious about the numbers.
24 burpees
48 step lunges
72 imperial walkers
96 merkins
120 plank jacks
144 squats
Total Distance run: 1.8 miles (at least that what I thought I over heard Pusher/Funhouse say). That’s a health distance to put around a single building. Wouldn’t be surprised if Rite-Aid Security HQ was panicking.

Naked Man Moleskin
Welcome FNG “Elvis”, who tolerated YHC refusing to give any demos of the exercises, and was also denied the traditional 5 minutes of AbLab, since we were busy with the main event right up until 0600. Prayers were requested by Lutefisk who’s father is undergoing surgery, and mother who will be taking care of him, but is having some new health issues of her own. Also for Shady who lost his dad a few weeks ago and needs comfort and encouragement as he continues to grieve. Also, for the men giving it away by helping launch F3Cincinnati – wishing them safe travels and praises for their willingness to serve.

Excellent work by all this morning. Thanks to Decibel for allowing me to Q.

The rain held off for a Cable Guy beatdown that did not disappoint! At least I didn’t hear any complaining 🙂

10 started and 11 finished at the Golden Corral
After the disclaimer was given we took a nice mosey for about 1/2 mile to get our legs warm then circled up near Rite Aid to get really warm (Fun House even shared his appreciation of my COP, thanks for that!)

Circle up and start with 20 Seal Jacks
20 Plank Jacks
20 SSH
30 Mountain Climbers (Sorry Pusher)
20 Peter Parker
20 Parker Peter
20 Imperial Walker
20 LBC
20 Morrocan night club
20 Slow Squat

Partner up (size does not matter)
separate about 30 yards
1st round:
Partners run to the center and start with 10 partner handslap merkins
run back to start and return to center for 9 an repeat down to 1
2nd round:
Same as above but replace merkins with big boy sit-ups
3rd round:
Same as above but replace sit-ups with squats
4th round:
Start with 8 handslap burpees and work dow n to 1 (Crowd pleaser)

Finish off with one partner making a short lap around Rite-Aid while the other partner does LBC’s until you reach 500 cumulatively!

The End!

COT we talked about what we are thankful for! I mentioned a book that is helping me called “Don’t sweat the small stuff and it’s all small stuff”. If you have not read or listened to it please grab it on audible and listen to it in the car or wherever. Do your self a favor and just get the book!

11 Pax defied #cantore and the #fartsack by showing up to the buffet of pain at Golden Corral.  @Whitelightning went down and I readily agreed to come out of the bullpen

Dynamic warm up- 50 yard dash in between

• SSH, Squat, Mountain Climber, Merkin, Monkey Humper, IW

The Thang

The THANG

• Curb toe touch step ups. 50, 30, 10.  10 merkins in between sets
• Burpee suicides.  5 squats at home, 5 burpees at each of the 5 touch points. Rinse/Repeat x3.  Rabbits were greeted with a plank series at the end of each round unitl the #six was in
• wall sit/balls to wall series x3
• 6 minutes of mary- LBC, hello dolly, rosalita, heels to heaven, homer to marge (hip thrusters) #crowdpleaser, protractor
• sprint series

COT

Naked Man Moleskin

Short words on wisdom prior to the THANG.  A key phrase from @Chickenhawk’s monthly word document is “Knowledge comes from learning, Wisdom comes from living”.  Being with this group of men has taught me to “take a breath” before I speak or act.  As a man, I am not always successful but I try and am now more times than not.

Impressive show by post P200ers and all pax.

Jekyll

Twelve men were met with some cool spring temps this morning at the Golden Corral.  Once we were all disclaimed, six of the ruckers split off to do their ruck thing, and the other six followed me for another bootcamp adventure.  Here is what we did:

The Thang:

Short mosey up and around the HT parking lot to COP:

All in double count cadence:

SSH x 50, windmill x 15, merkin x 10, squat x 20, Morrocan night club x 40, start walking to the front of the Harris Teeter and line up for some high intensity training:

Perform each exercise, and then run a 40 yard spring (20 out/back).  The exercises were:

All in double count cadence

Merkin x 10

Squat x 10,

Peter Parker x 10

Diamond merkin x 15

Jumping lunge x 15

Peoples chair x 90 sec

Carolina dry dock x 15

Monkey humper x 15

Wide arm merkin x 15

Dips x 20

Derkins x 15

Circle up for 7 Minutes of Mary (all in double count cadence)

LBC x 20, Hello Dolly x 20, Pretzel Crunch (10L/10R), American Hammer x 20, Superman hold x 3, Box cutter x 20, Boat and canoe x 3

Indian run around the whole parking lot and finish to COT

Naked Man Moleskine

It was another great morning at the Corral with a good mix of Ruckers and Bootcampers.  I had a strong group with me today and they powered through the exercises and sprints with gusto.  I ‘bonked’ about half-way through the workout and had to modify a few of the exercises.  But, Q-dreniline is real, and that carried me through the rest of the morning.

It’s cool to have the ruck group with us and we crossed paths twice with them today.  All we did was exchange pleasantries, but I think it would be cool to join together for part of the workout at some point.  Food for thought for those who are reading this.

Great to have Yat Yaz with us for his second workout.  He survived the Jekyll beatdown at Alcatraz on Saturday and we hope he becomes a regular at F3 The Fort.

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

1. It’s not too late to bring in more eggs.  Over 3,500 collected so far.  April 1 egg hunt at the Paradise neighborhood for those that can attend.
2. Brew Ruck, also on April 1.  Using canned goods for the Fort Mill Care Center as weights.
3. More – read your newsletter!

Prayers for the son of an F3 member battling depression. Prayers for those participating in P200.

Twister encouraged those to reach out to your F3 brothers when you need help with a problem.  It’s much easier than going it alone.

It was a privilege to lead the group this morning and I look forward to my next Tuesday at the Corral.

The weekly convergence at Golden Corral did not disappoint again this week.  The craziness that we head lock each other into (GoRuck Tough, P200, and just generally getting stronger and better) is the catalyst for these weekly convergences.  It is why 4 PAX went out at 4:40 to log an extra 3 miles before the “official F3” start only to find a lone Deacon logging some ruck miles after starting at 4:10!  Golden Corral’s new normal is hosting PAX heading out for 5-6 mile runs, ruckers making mistakes like following Zima into a dark corner for some suggestions of ladders involving bear crawls and burpees (which he did TWICE), and then there is the boot camp where this all began for most of us.

Millions of PAX (33 to be exact) and they start to disperse.  6 remain for the bootcamp which just happens to be perfect for some of the spacing needs on cart corrals.  YHC has been reading a book titled “Living with a Seal.”  This book is the real life account of Jesse Itzler who hired a retired navy seal to move in with his family for a month and train him.  He happened to pick David Goggins after watching him complete a 100 mile team relay race on his own.  In the book we Jesse details out their daily workouts which generally include double digit mileages on the runs and growing triple digit numbers for everything else.  High repetition and high intensity…..always.  I decided to use this as the inspiration for today’s workout.

Warm up:

• SSH X 30ish – who knows, PAX mumble chatter combined led to a lost count.
• Merkins X11
• Mountain Climbers X 15
• Windmills X10

The Thang:

Mosey to the front of Harris Teeter for the start.

• Run to the two cart corrals that are half the length of the parking lot
• 10 pull ups
• Run to the end of the parking lot for 15 merkins
• Run back to the front of the HT
• 15 Big Boy Situps

At about lap six, Aquaman found another gear and was gone.  He finished the entire series half a lap ahead of the rest of the PAX.

We completed the series 15 times.  Merkin form was starting to get a little ugly on the 9th lap so we made an adjustment and went to 10 hand release merkins.

The end result was 150 pull ups, 200 merkins, 225 big boy situps, that were completed while running 2 miles.

With only 7 minutes remaining the PAX made a quick mosey over to the side of HT and took a seat in the people’s chair against the O’Reilly Auto Center.  While the PAX stayed seated each PAX would take turns bear crawling to the HT wall for 10 donkey kicks and then bear crawl back.  We started with the two PAX on each end and worked our way in.

Mosey to the wall on the far side of the parking lot for 15 dips and then a duck walk to the second parking lot row.  Mosey back for COT.

Announcements:

• The Forging Ruck and Camping Trip to Mt. Mitchell – See Repeat Twitter for details.
• Slowburn closed for ruck convergence on NAFO
• April 1 – Brew Ruck
• April 1 – Easter Party at Paradise.  Deliver stuffed eggs to AOs on 3/18 for collection

Prayer Requests:

• Dream House – upcoming surgery
• Marriages both strong and struggling

Welcome to FNG FaceTime who started his journey as a Rucker!

Always a pleasure!

Spider-Man

I really didn’t have a plan…And then I did. It was one of those weinkes you look at and go, “Huh! I wonder what that’s going to look like.” Turns out it looks awful. And I may have lost a few friends today. Spirits were high and mumblechatter was in full effect. 0515 came and we disassociated with the runners and bootcampers (#antiestablishment), rucked up and moseyed.

Mosey in formation to the Oil Change side of Harris Teeter

COP
25 SSH IC
10 Bombjacks OYO
25 SSH IC
10 Bombjacks OYO
10 Windmills IC
20 Squats IC

Line up on the HT Wall and face new auto parts store.

Ascending Burpees 1-7 w/ Bear Crawls (Ruck On)
Bear Crawl to Auto Store 1 Burpee
Bear Crawl to HT Wall 2 Burpees
Continue until you get to 7 Burpees

Mosey in Formation to Back of Harris Teeter and line up

Ascending Squats 1-11 w/ OH Carries
OH Carry about 30 yards 1 Squat (Ruck Front)
OH Carry about 30 yards 2 Squats
Continue until you get to 11 Squats

Mosey in formation to the other side of Harris Teeter for an #Omaha

Repeat Ascending Burpees 1-7 w/ Bear Crawls (Ruck On) – Crowd pleaser

Mosey in formation to the front of Fort Mill BBQ (New AO for 2ndF)

B.O.M.B.S.
10 Burpees
20 OH Presses
30 Merkins
40 Big Boy Situps
50 Squats until 0600 (about 1 minute)

COT

NMM
-This was a stupid workout but I had a lot of “fun”
-Tclaps to everyone for pushing through
-Thanks to Geronimo for reminding us that it’s only 45 minutes
-I need Ibuprofen and a nap
-Tclaps to FNG “FaceTime” who I heard went to the gym after 😐
-That’s all I got, I’m spent

Praise and Prayers
-Prayers for Dreamhouse’s (RH Pax) kidney surgery
-Pray for marriages
-Pray for families

Honor to lead!
Zima

“Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray
from the straight road and woke to find myself
alone in a dark wood.”
– Danté

The lines above describe us all in some measure or other as we have scraped and scratched along our journey out of the Kingdom of the Sad Clowns and attempt to make ourselves into something of use to our Creator, our families, and our fellow man… I thought it fitting (because my snakes have been swirling more than usual as of late) that we celebrate this trip through life with a nod to the 9 circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno poem… No, I don’t know entirely why. Yes, it is fruitless to ask. Here’s what it looked like:

Warm up:
Ruck around the parking lot and over to the new O’Reilly Auto Parts building
Windmills x 10 (IC)
Moroccan Nightclubs x 15 (IC)
Merkins x 10 (IC)
MC x 20 (IC)

Now begins Dante’s Inferno – 9 circles of Hell
Partner up, size matters…

Circle 1: Walk around the building

• 3 curls
• 3 overhead press
• 3 flutter kick presses (double count)
• 3 dips
• 3 sumo squats

Circle 2: Double time around the building

• 6 of each exercise

Circle 3: Overhead hold around the building

• 9 of each exercise

Circle 4: Catch me if you can around the building

• 12 of each

Circle 5: Lunge Walk around the building

• 15 of each

Circle 6: Crab walk around the building

• 18 of each

Circle 7: Bear crawl around the building

• 21 of each

Circle 8: Partner 1 Fireman’s Carry around the building

• 24 of each

Circle 9: Partner 2 Fireman’s Carry around the building

• 27 of each

Hustle back for COT…

========================

It’s impossible to say where the journey ends, but we know the final destination. It’s nearly impossible to put into words how good F3 been for me and for my family, so I won’t try.
But it has been good… Really good. Even if this workout sucked… 🙂

Helmet, out.